1841 Census - look up please

[derekchesh]

I'm being thick tonight and only just spotted page 2.

In 1841, Wardrobe Place was a group of four houses and there were at least one - possibly two - other families sharing No:1 where William, Elizabeth and Henry Chidgey were living. There is no way of telling where Rebecca lived.

On the present "best guesses" the chronology was:
William and Elizabeth married     31 Aug 1822
Henry was born                      14 Jan 1824
Rebecca and Robert married     20 Jun 1830
Henry baptised                       18 Mar 1837

I would be surprised therefore if Rebecca had anything to do with Henry's baptism. I am not an historian but I understand that the requirement for registration of births did not come in until after 1837 so he was not "given a name at birth"in any official way. Until his baptism, Henry answered to whatever name people used. People did not fill in forms or log on every day! Women did not have today's exalted status and were a chatel. Hence to say that Rebecca named him is putting current practice and standards into 1830's life.

Without discovering a diary, there is no way of being certain why events happened. It may be significant that Henry and Elizabeth are not recorded as having surviving children - and it would have been far less of a story if they had passed Henry off as their own. With my own ancestors, it was the woman who was left holding the baby while father vanished or was forced by the parish to provide for his offspring ( for want of a better word!)

Last word is about the census records. Read some of the genealogy horror stories of how garbled the information could be - both accidentally and deliberately. And that is before people started data inputting what they thought the handwriting said. I'll let you visualise the scene and conversation but all the census enumerator wanted to do was record names and ages of everyone in the house - then get on to the next as fast as possible to complete his round on that day. He wrote down what he thought he had heard and left intact - questioning children's parentage was a dangerous business.

Good luck hunting

Derek

[derekchesh]

Simon - I've been thinking about the above scenario since it didn't quite fit together.

An alternative is that Henry Newick had "William Chidgey " included in his baptismal name since the latter was his adopted father rather than genetic father.

It is possible that since Rebecca and Henry lived in the same group of houses in Wardrobe Place,  when Rebecca married Robert, he did not want responsibility for someone else's child. By that time, it would have been apparent to William and Elizabeth that they would not have children of their own so they adopted Henry.

I believe that legal adoption was not introduced until the 1920's but the requirement for registration of births began in 1837, so he was baptised/registered in that year and took the name of the man who had taken him and given him a home (rather than send him to the workhouse as happened to my gggrandmother).

This addresses the problem that Henry was conceived 5 months after William and Elizabeth were married but does not help in tracing the DNA line.

Derek

[sft456]

Derek

Thank you for you further thoughts. However I am a little lost. Surely either William Chidgey is HWCN's father or is not.

He was born in 1824. If what you previously said was true, that women were mere chattels, why was he called Newick at his Baptism in 1837?

Secondly Rebecca didn't marry Robert Edbrooke until 6 + years later. Are you suggesting that HWCN was living with Rebecca until then, after which William Chidgey took over?

It had certainly crossed my mind that Elizabeth, his wife, may not have been able to bear children

According to the Marriage Records, William and Elizabeth were married in 1822, 19 months BEFORE HWCN was born at the beginning of 1824

Simon